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Sunday, January 1, 2017

2017: Happy New Year, December side hustles and year end summary

Happy New Year! Did you all have a fun and safe time ringing
in the New Year?After our son joined
our family in 2015, our new years celebrations toned down considerably.Our friend hosted a very nice dinner at his
house.By 8:45pm, we left for home to
put our little one to bed.By 10:30pm,
we were fast asleep in our bed – and this is staying up late for us!Can you believe that 2016 is already over?Whether it was a good or bad year for you,
it’s over.

Looking back at 2016

Writing posts for this
blog helps us categorize our financial achievements and setbacks. It’s nice to look back and reflect on 2016.It was another good year for credit card
points and rewards.We are getting our
son accustomed to airports and airplanes. He continues to grow so fast and learn his way in the world around him. He's starting to express himself more with his voice and body. He's slowly learning to play nicely with other kids. We continue to work as hard as we can to provide for him. We hit a financial milestone of over
250K invested.Unfortunately, it was
also a very expensive year for us.Thankfully,
our side hustle income helped to offset a lot of our expenses

Total home improvement expenses: $21,145.56.Ouch.Our home is now 36 years old and very little improvements have been done
over the lifetime of the home.If we
were renting, we could have saved this much money.Thankfully most of these upgrades will last
many years.

Here is a list of
unexpected expenses:
- Main water leak piping replacement: $1,179.88
- Electrician fees for our rental property: $150
- Dog sitting fees: $715.When we leave
on trips, we hire someone to come and dog sit for Abby, and also watch the
house in our absence.Total unexpected expenses: $2,044.88

Biggest purchases of 2016:
- New Toyota 4Runner: $36,313.64.We bought
it for the extra room and the fact that it seats 7, a nice feature we’ve used
whenever seeing family.Yes, this was a
huge purchase for us.It’s also not very
fuel efficient (17mpg city and 22 mpg highway). Mr.
Money Mustache would probably punch me in the face if he found out about our
SUV purchase.That being said, we
will keep this vehicle for a very long time.Buying new and paying it all in cash was important to us, and having no
monthly car payments is great! We don't expect to make any car payments for a very long time.
- Car seats: $184.44 and $222.31
- Stroller: $221.02
- Umbrella stroller: $82.06Total large expenses: $37,023.47

Yikes.Looking at how much money we spent in 2016
makes me cringe.There are all sorts of
other things we spent small amounts of money on in 2016, but I’ve only listed
the big items. We both have been getting steady promotions and raises and it
seems like our lifestyle has crept up quite a bit.Tracking all of our expenses helps us look
back and see where our money went.If
you never track your expenses, you’ll have no idea where your money is ending
up.

There’s that old saying:
“work hard, play hard” which many people say to justify spending more when you
are earning more.I don’t want us to
fall into the situation where the more money we make and spend, the further
from financial freedom we become.The
White Coat Investor has a great write up about moving
away from financial independence. I want to make our motto for 2017: “work hard, invest hard.”With this new year, it’s another chance
for us to continue to be relentless in our pursuits of financial freedom.

December side hustles
2016

Here’s our monthly summary of side income that
we have generated in the previous month of December.

Cash back

On
12.1, I received a PayPal deposit of $21.81 from Mr. Rebates, my favorite cash
back site.

On
12.12, I received a $20 statement credit on my American Express Premier
Rewards Gold card from AMEX Offers (spend $50 at godaddy.com and get $20
credit).This was perfect timing since I
needed to renew my domain for this site for the next 2 years.

On
12.16, I received an $8 statement credit on my Chase
Sapphire Reserve card due to the Chase Travel credit (for 2017)

On 12.20, I received a $4.64 statement credit on my Chase
Sapphire Reserve card from the Chase Travel credit

On 12.22, I received a $5.66 statement credit on my Chase
Sapphire Reserve card from the Chase Travel credit

On 12.26, I received a $5 statement credit on my AMEX Gold
card from AMEX Offers (spend $5 at iTunes and get $5 back)

On 12.27, I received a $7.40 statement credit on my Chase
Sapphire Reserve card from the Chase Travel credit

On 12.15, I received a
check for $275 for teaching at the
local university

On 12.19, I received a
check for $137.50 for teaching at
the local university.

Rental Income

On 12.1, I received a
check for $700 from our temporary
housemate

On 12.5, we received a
net profit of $430 from our rental
property.

Website Income

On 12.29, I received a $10.21 deposit in my checking account
from Amazon Associates.

Miscellaneous Income

On 12.17, I received $20 ($10 x 2) worth of Amazon.com gift cards from
MyPoints.MyPoints gives you points for clicking on
advertisements sent to your spam email account.

On 12.29, I received a $50 MasterCard Debit card for a Ford
Test drive offer

On 12.22, I received a $125 statement
credit on our electric bill for purchasing a smart thermometer (Nest)

Monthly Totals:

We earned $72.51 cash
back

I earned $180 from paid surveys

I earned $412.50 for teaching at the local
university

We earned $1,130
from rental income

I earned $10.21 from website income

We earned $195 miscellaneous income

All of this totals $2,000.22
from our side hustles for the month of December.Earning
a few bucks here and there from teaching, consulting, selling on eBay, and even
survey taking really adds up when you combine the side hustles together.

2016 Side Hustle Totals

This
is the third year I’ve been documenting our side hustle income. For 2016, we brought in a total of $24,195.44
on the side! For 2015, we earned a
total of $19,178.54. And for
2014, we earned a total of $28.633.42. 3 years of side hustle income
comes out to be $72,007.40, not too shabby! All this extra side hustle income stacks on
top of our regular income. Side hustle
income continues to help us live a rich life.

It
seems like 2016 just flew by. Was it prosperous for you?I hope you don’t allow 2017 to fly by without
finding success in your pursuits of wealth, happiness, and health.Let’s make 2017 a great year.